


A Walk In The Park

by Wasted_Fox



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, NO rape, Non-Consensual Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28790622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wasted_Fox/pseuds/Wasted_Fox
Summary: "I understand that your previous life wasn't a walk in the park, but you can tell me", Adam said and sat down on a weird piece of furniture that didn't look like anything familiar, trying not to look concerned.
Relationships: Adam Crawford/Kurt Hummel
Kudos: 8





	A Walk In The Park

*

"I'm not touching you", Adam said again and put his arms behind him to show that Kurt was absolutely secure. 

Kurt was standing on a sofa hyperventilating, his hands in a protective gesture.

"I understand that your previous life wasn't a walk in the park, but you can tell me", Adam said and sat down on a weird piece of furniture that didn't look like anything familiar, trying not to look concerned.

Kurt took a step down to the floor and took a seat on the sofa, his shoulders still tense.

"Funny you've mentioned a walk in the park", he smirked unhappily. "Because that's exactly the case."

"Okay", Adam said.

"A particular walk in the park."

*

It was way past sunset. 

At some point Kurt took up long walks in the park to calm down and shut up the voices in his head saying, well, things. He was 21, still in Ohio, not sure if he would ever make it in a big city. Not with his anxiety and fear of the crowds. 

A trip to New York he took a year ago was exhausting. Too many people, too little space, overwhelming advertising in the streets. The noise of the city that never sleeps. He couldn't sleep there either. He tossed and turned on Rachel's couch until dawn listening to the howling of occasional sirens and rattling of the garbage trucks. Rachel was sleeping like a dog. With all the rehearsals, and being in an ensemble in Chess, still learning how to work as a team and auditioning like crazy for every leading part in town, she must've been so tired. 

What if he moved here and lost his sleep completely? He googled how long a person could live without sleep, then without food and water. He got up and moved to the kitchen area to hydrate and think. Overthink.

At least 1.5 hour commute to any living facility he could afford was just sad. Sharing an apartment with a stranger wouldn't help either. Vogue.com was good, but it didn't pay anything. And it would kill him to work double shifts: first at Vogue, and then somewhere else.

So he thanked Rachel for showing him around the city, made a joke about having seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town and came back to Ohio. At least it was quiet here. 

He took design classes at a local college and found small jobs here and there, mostly online. And of course he was singing his heart out, making his Dad frown and ask if he'd like to see someone about his anxiety and skyrocket to NYADA. No, he didn't want to see anyone. He wanted to be left alone. Dad didn't insist. 

Instead of the pills, Kurt took up occasional walks in the park and soaking in the bathtub. Magnesia was claimed to be good for stress relief, according to one of the links Rachel sent him. It was indeed, but it made him scratch himself - looked like he was allergic to stress relief. Then he got an ear infection, probably from too much soaking, and magnesia-less baths were over too. Which meant more walks.

*

It was quickly getting dark, like it does in the summer. It was so calm and silent in the park. Not a soul around. Kurt started remembering what needed to be done for a project he had to finish next week to get paid, and even thinking about it was boring. Kurt definitely couldn't care less, especially not with the deadline being so far, far away, being lost in the distant future of next week. For all he knew, he could be dead by weekend. So why would he spend his last days on Earth worrying about fonts?

That's when Kurt saw him. A man came up to him from a side path and started a conversation. He flattered Kurt straight away, saying how good-looking he was and that his parents must've been super proud to have a son like him. Kurt smiled. 

The man asked his name and introduced himself. He asked if he could walk with Kurt, and Kurt said, "Sure." 

The man said he also liked this park, but wasn't much of a walker, he preferred running. But he would never run from Kurt, he said, because Kurt was gorgeous. Kurt started to enjoy his company and grinned again. He probably blushed, too.

"Just look at your smile", the man said. "So pretty." 

And to make Kurt smile more, he started telling jokes. They were not the ones you would tell a stranger, as Kurt realised later, and definitely not the ones you would tell your parents who must've been super proud of you. But they were also not too inappropriate, just innuend-ish, boys at the college were telling stuff like that all the time. Just for the laughs. Jokes meant nothing and they never lead to anything. They were like death threats: a person shouting "I will kill you!" in your face never does, you either kill or shout. 

The man wasn't like boys from college. He was probably 40 or 45, roughly Kurt's Dad's age. Very fit and pleasant-looking, though Kurt wasn't thinking about him that way. Not with all the talking about his parents and stuff.

So when the man said he saw an eyelash under Kurt's eye and reached out his hand to pick it, Kurt wasn't thinking he would be tricked into a kiss. 

Kurt was shocked. He didn't have much kissing experience, okay, he didn't have any kissing experience because, well, it was Lima, Ohio, and he was shy, and gay, and usually overdressed... But why not? He was of age, and God knows when anyone else would like to plant one on him. And it'd be stupid to wait an eternity before it happens (if ever) when he had an opportunity right now. At least he'd stop wondering what it was like. At least he'd have something to satisfy his curiosity. 

But it wasn't satisfying, it wasn't pleasant. It didn't feel like anything at all. It was like a medical procedure. 

Kurt was surprised. He had read about so many wonderful kisses, he'd watched a ton of them on TV, he had GIFs of them, he sang about them, for Chrissake. And now, when he was experiencing one, he didn't feel anything at all. Of course, he didn't think he'd fall in love with a total stranger in the park, but he could've felt at least some sort of joy. A tiny bit. 

What was wrong with him? Maybe he wasn't trying too hard. The man's tongue slipped into his mouth, and Kurt tried to move his lips and get involved. Still, nothing. He must be broken. Meanwhile, the man was saying he wanted to make him feel good, to bring him pleasure. Well, looked like at least someone enjoyed this weird encounter. Maybe Dad wasn't so wrong about a visit to the psychiatrist, in the end.

The man asked him to step off the path and into the bushes. Kurt said no. The man asked if he'd go out with him. Kurt said no. "Did I scare you?" he asked. "Can I walk you home?" Kurt said no. 

Kurt couldn't sleep that night. He didn't forget to brush his teeth for the first time ever. In fact, he brushed them three times. Next morning, he told his Dad that a guy from the park asked him out, omitting the kissing scene, of course, and the feeling of disgust (mostly with himself) was almost gone. "Will you go?" Dad said. Kurt said no. 

He didn't go to the park for a week. He never met the man again and completely forgot his name, so now, when he was telling this to Adam, or rather to the floor and the ceiling, he just called him The Guy. 

*

"Did he do anything else that you've also omitted?" Adam said. "Touch you, you know?"

Kurt was lying on the sofa now, barely moving, feeling like he was in Ms Kim's office again. Adam was pacing the floor. 

"I don't think so. He may have put a hand on my chest or my back or my ass, but I wouldn't feel anything."

"You were too shocked?"

"And too in my head. I simply don't remember."

"Have you talked about it to anyone?" Adam stopped pacing, waiting for an answer. 

"Just you."

"Oh man", he wanted to say. "Okay", he said instead. 

"I know. Healing starts whenever you're able to tell your story? Ha!"

The ceiling was staring at Kurt like a blank page.

"And it's been..."

"11 years."

Adam started pacing again. What could he do?

"You know, whenever you're ready for a hug, I'm available."

"Not now", Kurt said too quickly. "I mean, thanks."

More pacing and more staring at the ceiling. 

"Tea?" Adam suggested in a few minutes. "With the cobbler I brought?"

"Probably just tea. But you should have the cobbler. Just leave me a slice."

Adam filled the kettle, happy to have something to do, yet feeling like this routine was only a temporary replacement of real action. "How does your stove work, is there a button? I don't see any matches..."

"We have a lighter", Kurt said and stood up to find the thing in one of the drawers, moving lazily, feeling like a deflated balloon on two legs. "Here."

They returned to the sitting area, waiting for the water to boil, and both sat on the sofa. It was so quiet, as if there was no city outside. No kids screaming in the street, no dogs barking, no neighbours singing warm-ups. The kettle started making soft noises.

"What?" Kurt said.

"Why?"

"You were staring at me."

Adam wanted to hug him so much. And kiss him the way he'd hopefully like. And comfort him. And touch his hair. But not now, not now. 

"I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"You, and me, and things we could do together."

"What kind of things?" Kurt's muscles got tense again for a second or two, he just couldn't help it.

"Well, how about playing one of those games on your phone where you guess the songs' names?"

"Oh. I don't know... There are never any songs from the musicals there."

"Really?"

"Can you believe it?"

"I. Can. Not. I have to see it. What are they thinking?"

"I know!"

So they played a shitty phone game without a single song from the musicals, and they watched the bootleg of Wicked for the hundred's time to compensate, and Kurt hugged Adam, and Adam kissed the top of his head making him twitch just a little bit, and Kurt tasted the cobbler which, by the way, was delicious.


End file.
